SOWING AND REAPING

Time with Jesus - Thursday, 21 February 2013

Jim & Phyllida Strickland

Hi all,

The law of sowing and reaping is an unbreakable spiritual law. It reaches into everyday life and touches us whether we like it or not. In fact, without this law, everything would be entirely random; as random as the origins of man according to Darwinian evolution. It would mean you could plant potatoes and get a variable crop; everything from spinach to tomatoes. A baboon could mate with an ox and get a boxer dog. In the case of twins, it could be an alligator and a camel. What would happen if the sphinx mated with dung beetle? Would it be a “duninx” or a “spheetle”? The mind boggles! Fortunately, the law of sowing and reaping ensures that when human beings mate, they produce human beings. It’s the way it works within every species. The offspring will be a bit like mom and dad. I’m not a scientist but I have heard that the DNA of the offspring will reflect a combination of mom and dad’s DNA. How or why is quite beyond my understanding.

Oddly enough, we tend to prefer our own kind within a species. Hence in cities like London, San Francisco and even Johannesburg you will find parts of the city inhabited primarily by like people. We know that Chinatown exists in many centres. We have “Arab quarters”, “Irish quarters” and “Jewish quarters” and similar collections of people with similar backgrounds. In a way it’s a form of “voluntary apartheid” by choice. Like tends to prefer to mix with like, so they settle fairly close together. Sometimes these are called “ghetto’s”. It comes about by personal preferences. In time, the area takes on the flavour and sometimes appearance, of that particular culture.

Sowing and reaping works in many sectors of society. If you study to pass an examination, the chances are, you will be successful. If you don’t, you won’t. To play any top class sport, you have to train and practise. Sometimes it takes many years to achieve success. To play a musical instrument well, you have to keep practising.

In many cases we don’t know exactly what the offspring will look like. If you find an old bulb in the back corner of your garage you may well decide to plant it. One thing is certain. The plant that grows will be unlike the bulb. An obvious example is an egg. It looks nothing like a hen. But under the right conditions another hen will be produced. It will never be a watermelon.

In a way, the Christian life is much the same. Spiritual growth comes about as a result of Bible Study and mixing with other Christians. A person can respond to an evangelist at a meeting. But if he doesn’t follow up, or isn’t followed up, it’s likely that his new life in Jesus will be still-born. It’s part of sowing and reaping.

From personal experience, it’s worth mentioning, that in 1959 I fell in love with a wonderful young woman. I think our affection for each other was mutual. Three months later, I left South Africa for England. We’ve never met each other since. For something to have developed from that brief encounter in 1959, we would have had to continue to correspond or relate in some way. We didn’t and that was the end of that!

To have a personal relationship with Jesus takes time and effort. If you don’t bother, there’s no reason why He should.

Shalom,

Jim & Phyllida Strickland  

Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give		Time with Jesus – Thursday, 21 February 2013			Matt 10:8 Freely you received, Freely give
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INTRODUCTION			DAILY LIGHT EVENING SCRIPTURES	Sowing and Reaping
We have all grown up in a world of order. It may not be a perfect world. In spite of this, the earth is filled with an order, that could only have originated in the Mind of the great Creator of the universe. In spite of the catastrophic results of the fall of man, certain unchangeable laws remain. One of them, is the law of sowing and reaping. What is meant here is that if a pair of canines mate, they produce canines. It’s not some sort of lucky dip in which you get whatever it was that came to the surface. There may be a small evolutionary variation within that species. But dogs produce dogs and not canaries. This is true in each and every species. When men and women reproduce, the outcome is predictably human. Could you imagine what it would be like if, after the birth, the woman handed her husband a tortoise? No! It doesn’t work that way. Like produces, or reproduces like. There may well be considerable variations within a species. Science can do wonderful things today. But even with invitro-fertilisation, the outcome for men and women is a little baby human Fish give rise to fish. Gorillas produce baby gorillas. Cats, dogs, cows, marmosets or all other species; they will reproduce after their own kind. Satan hasn’t been able to screw that one up! Not yet, thank God. Sometimes, that which is reproduced looks different from its parents. A moth doesn’t look like a pupa. But this is the way God intended it to be. So, what will our resurrection bodies look like? We don’t know. John’s statement gives us some thoughts. 2 Dear friends, we are already God's children, but He has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is. 1 John 3:2 NLT The Gospels and Acts give us some idea of what He looked like some 2000 years ago. Will we look like that? Scripture suggests we will be like Him. Will we be able to do what He does? Will we be able to appear and vanish, walk through walls and ascend into the sky? Good question.? We don’t know. Perhaps we will all get a huge surprise. Paul puts it like this in his first letter to the Corinthians. 42 It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. 43 Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. 44 They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies. 1 Cor 15:42-44 NLT Jim & Phyllida  Strickland			10 Hate evil, you who love the LORD, Who preserves the souls of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. 11 Light is sown like seed for the righteous And gladness for the upright in heart. Psalm 97:10-11 NASB A Song of Ascents. 1 When the LORD brought back the captive ones of Zion, We were like those who dream. 2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter And our tongue with joyful shouting; Then they said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them." 3 The LORD has done great things for us; We are glad. 4 Restore our captivity, O LORD, As the streams in the South. 5 Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. 6 He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Psalm 126:1-6 NASB 35 But someone may ask, "How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?" 36 What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn't grow into a plant unless it dies first. 37 And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. 1 Cor. 15:35-37 NLT 3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by His great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance--an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. 5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by His power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. 6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold--though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honour on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. 1 Peter 1:3-7 NLT	We went and bought a random pack of seeds the other day. We wondered what they would produce, there wasn’t any way, That they could be identified. So what on earth would grow? Perhaps some sort of specialist could look at them and know? They didn’t look exotic. To me, they looked the same. Runner beans or flowers? We knew whatever came, Would surely be acceptable; and it was kind of fun. We planted them and watered them and left them in the sun. At first we could see nothing. We thought to dig them up. But thought that if we bothered them, we surely couldn’t sup On anything that tiny. And so we let the be, Convinced that in a few short days we’d know the mystery. And so we kept on watering and fertilised the soil. We knew none of our cosseting would cause the plants to spoil. Then finally a few small shoots appeared above the ground. That’s when our curiosity could never know its bounds! They didn’t look like anything resembling the seed. The only thing we knew for sure was that they were not weeds. That’s how Paul the apostle, described what would take place. That when we’re dead and buried, that Jesus by His grace, Would take our feeble bodies, that were lying in the grave; And give them resurrection life, we’d know was truly saved. How was it ever possible? an evil man like me, Could get a brand new body that would live eternally? The question seemed improbable. But that’s what He can do, With dead and buried sinners, the likes of me and you. I don’t know how He does it. It’s rather like the seed. It grows into a healthy plant, by His Almighty deed! Why should I understand it? Why should I ever know, That dead and buried sinners would surely sprout, and grow, Into what He intended?  But then He pointed out, That only those who loved Him would germinate and sprout. Anyone who didn’t would stay within the grave. They hadn’t been His people and still were Satan’s slave. But if we will believe Him; and we invite Him in. He’ll bring with Him the power to smash all death and sin. That’s when He’ll take the little seed that deep within us grows; And bring forth someone beautiful - Our Master’s fragrant rose. Jim Strickland  Written  21st February 2012